“Come Volumnio e Lucullo”. Scorci sull’amicizia nel secolo della rinascita classica

The 1441 Certame coronario, sponsored by Leon Battista Alberti, traced the attention of the literati of that time back to the classic theme of friendship, as exemplarily explained in the Ciceronian Laelius de amicitia. This article intends to investigate the repercussions of the Alberti’s competition on the literary production of the umanist Felice Feliciano from Verona (1433-1479?), since in his vulgar epistles the friendship subject took on a central role; moreover, it aims to inspect the classic sources from which Feliciano drew inspiration to write about this topic, and to refl ect on the “liminal” nature of friendship in the fifteenth century, halfway between authentic feeling and instrumental relations.